Presently available women's clothing apparel generally do not include breast support. Typically, breast support systems, such as a bra, are a component separate from the shirt or dress and have a separate strap arrangement for supporting the bra and garment over a woman's shoulder.
One disadvantage of having a separate strap for the bra and for the garment is that the bra strap can be displaced from being completely covered by the garment shoulder strap when a woman performs routine activities while wearing the garment/bra arrangement. Exposure of the bra strap beneath the garment strap can give an unkempt look. This can be a particular problem when the shoulder support straps of the garment are thin, i.e., about the same width as the bra strap. In addition, the independent movement of the two straps on a woman's shoulder can be constantly irritating and require repeated manual adjustment to realign the bra strap and the garment strap.
One alternative is to use a single strap to provide over-the-shoulder support to both the cup portions of the bra and the garment. Such arrangements are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,398,538 and 4,798,557. However, in general, arrangements having a single strap for both the bra and garment do not provide the support necessary for full figured women.
Another alternative is to provide the garment with a built in bra. Such arrangements are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,478,278 and 5,678,246. While these arrangements may provide adequate breast support, the bra and garment are generally fixed together over portions of the body of the bra (i.e., cups, sides and back region) and the strap region. This arrangement can be disadvantageous because the garment cannot move freely relative to the body of the bra.
Clasp systems are available for fixing the garment strap and bra strap in position as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,545. However, in addition to being unsightly, clasps generally only provide a localized point of fixation thus allowing relative displacement between the garment shoulder strap and the bra strap at regions that are not directly fixed together by the clasp.
Another alternative is to not wear a bra when wearing a sleeveless or thin strapped garment. This, however, is frequently a disadvantage for full figured women or women performing sports or other physical activities.
Accordingly, there is a need for women's garments, particularly garments that are sleeveless or thin strapped, that permits constant coverage of the strap of an underlying bra by the garment shoulder strap.